Bus Ride
by Irhaboggles
Summary: What was supposed to be a normal bus ride to school quickly devolved into something far more interesting when a certain young blond with a backpack full of makeup, shoes and hair and skincare products plopped down beside Elphaba that morning and proceeded to give her lessons in Popularity.


Elphaba sat in the clattering, cluttering, clanking, clunking yellow machine that was carting her off to school. To distract herself from the boringness of the ride, she had brought a book, but right in the middle of her reading, she heard a loud thump right next to her ear. Elphaba looked up with a start. There stood a little blond girl in a bright prink dress. She plunked down beside Elphaba with a scowl on her face. Elphaba, unsure of what to do, decided just to go back to reading. Before she could even finish a page, however, the irritated-looking blond acknowledged her.

"Help me with this, will you?!" she asked with an irritated grunt, gesturing to her hair. Still unsure of what to do, and totally unused to this type of situation, Elphaba obeyed at once. She grabbed onto the golden tresses being offered to her and held them out straight as the little blond weaved her slim fingers in and out of them with expert speed and dexterity.

For the next few minutes, then, Elphaba and the blond both ran their fingers through the golden tresses, the blond occasionally muttering and cursing under her breath as she worked. Finally, though, once the hairdo was over, the blond heaved a sigh and her shoulders slumped. She turned to Elphaba with a grateful and apologetic expression.

"Thanks," she said. "I'm sorry I snapped at you. My name's Galinda," the blond offered to shake hands.

"I'm Elphaba and it's all good," Elphaba replied, awkwardly and hesitatingly taking Galinda's proffered hand. This morning certainly had been interesting! It wasn't every day that someone willingly sat down beside Elphaba (her green skin made her highly unsavory to pretty much everyone who ever saw her). Yet Galinda hardly even seemed to notice that her skin was an abnormal shade.

"I just woke up super late and I didn't have time to do anything!" Galinda continued, explaining her plight. "Ugh! I feel like a bum!"

"No, you look fine!" Elphaba tried to reassure the blond.

"Oh, thanks," Galinda blushed a bit. "It's just that, normally, I'd wear something fancier, but like I said, I had no time!" then Galinda went off, this time explaining all the things she would've done differently if the stupid, smelly bus hadn't come so early.

"Well, I don't pay much attention to any of that," Elphaba admitted with a shrug, trying not to sound rude. "Clothing just isn't my forte," she explained. But she ended up regretting what she had said because the moment she confessed that she didn't know anything about fashion, Galinda's eyes lit up like the sun and she was suddenly off on another tangent, this time explaining all sorts of fashion tips and tricks.

The endless chatter was, mercifully, ended when Galinda's phone went off. Five minutes later, though, the call ended and Galinda hung up. She had a dreamy look on her face and, despite herself, Elphaba just had to ask!

"Who was it?" she asked.

"Oh, just some boy!" Galinda answered with another dreamy sigh.

"A boyfriend?" Elphaba queried further.

"Oh! No! Nothing like that!" Galinda's dreamy sigh faded into a chortle. "I'm only flirting with him!"

"Only?" Elphaba was confused now.

"Yeah, we aren't a thing, I just wanna see what I can get out of him!" Galinda then gave Elphaba a devious wink and a wicked smile. Elphaba was at a crossroad of disdainful and terrified. On the one hand, she always found relationships of that nature (petty flirting for fun and favors, but no real emotional ties) to be stupid, but as Galinda explained all the things she'd been able to weasel out of past relationships, Elphaba couldn't help but be a little intimidated. Clearly, Galinda was far smarter than she seemed.

"You should try flirting!" Galinda said suddenly.

"What? Me? No. I don't-" Elphaba trailed off, blushing.

"Well you should. Just look all cute and bat your eyes and toss your hair. Like this!" Galinda demonstrated by swishing her hair around.

"Toss, toss!" she cried with a sickly sweet smile. Then she turned on Elphaba. "Ok! Now you try!" she instructed. And Elphaba, sensing that she would not be able to get out of it, reluctantly obliged.

"Toss. Toss," she said, giving a halfhearted flick of her long black tresses.

"Well... You'll practice," Galinda said through a pained smile.

But if Galinda was disappointed with Elphaba's pitiful ideas of flirting, it did not last. In fact, a mere five seconds later, the little blond was off again, rooting through her giant backpack. She pulled out a pair of terrifyingly tall heels.

"How do you wear those?" Elphaba asked in awe and disgust at the painful-looking footwear.

"Practice," Galinda replied before launching into yet another lesson. Elphaba could only force a smile and grit her teeth as Galinda was off, explaining all the different types of heels there were, and how one was supposed to walk in each of them. And there was so much to consider! Balance, speed, style, weight, foot position, body position, posture. The list went on!

"And speaking of style!" Galinda cried suddenly. "I almost forgot my makeup!" this time, when she went into her giant backpack, she pulled out an entire box that would've caked every face on the bus and then some. Elphaba had never seen so many pallets or colors before!

20 minutes later, the school was in sight and Galinda was looking perfect (as always). Beside her sat the green girl, arms overloaded with all the brushes and tools that Galinda had had her hold onto during the trip over. Galinda was busily applying a few finishing touches and Elphaba, though she despised makeup, couldn't help but be fascinated with how quickly and smoothly Galinda did hers.

"How do you even carry all of this?" Elphaba breathed as she studied every little last brush she was carrying. There were all sorts of lipstick tubes and nail polish bottles also balanced precariously in her arms.

"Practice, I guess," Galinda shrugged as she started to apply her pink lipstick. Elphaba's head was spinning from all the bottles Galinda had.

"And hey! Maybe I could do your makeup sometime?" Galinda asked as she put her lipstick away at last.

"Ummm, no thanks. I don't wear makeup," Elphaba replied sternly. Despite having been relatively shy for the whole bus ride, nothing would sway Elphaba's firm in decision in this. Even when Galinda suggested bringing a special green makeup, Elphaba refused.

"Ok," Galinda admitted defeat. "But, it was still nice meeting you!" she added as the bus pulled into the lot. With that, the little blond skipped off to class, leaving a rather stunned Elphaba still on the bus, wondering what the heck had just happened. It was a very interesting bus ride, to say the least.

**AN: This was sort of based off of real life. I rode the bus to school every day and, for the longest time, I sat alone in the front. Then one day, this girl just came bustling in and she plopped right down beside me and started talking. From that day onward, she would sit by me every morning and tell me about makeup and shoes and boys and clothess. She was very Galinda, so naturally, this fic had to be written. **


End file.
